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Humans 101

20 Considerations for Times of Normalcy and Upheaval

How to discover, and rediscover, what makes you human

E.E. Demore
Human Parts
Published in
6 min readMar 29, 2020

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A photo taken from the rear of a person working on their laptop while sitting on the sofa.
Photo: Grant/Unsplash

Consider home. Discover the way the sun enters a room mid-afternoon. Rediscover a room’s hidden corners. Light a candle. Take care of your home. Clean it, but try to find pleasure in the act: Taking care of the space around you can help reduce anxiety and establish a sense of control and order.

Consider time. Is it lunchtime? Bedtime? If you benefit from a sense of control, work at maintaining a routine. Otherwise, relish the freedom to eat when you’re hungry and sleep when you’re tired.

On that note:

Consider sleep. According to Matthew Walker, author of Why We Sleep, sleep is the single most important factor for our well-being. It boosts our ability to learn, restocks our immune system, and helps us make logical decisions.

Stress tends to mess with our sleep schedule, so consider making the act of sleeping more pleasurable. Experiment with leaving your phone in another room. Take a nap. Studies show that 20–30 minutes can be enough for an improvement in energy and mood.

And:

Consider food. Cook something. Something familiar or something new. Samin Nosrat’s new podcast

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